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10/06/2010

The story of the one-column infographic category at Malofiej

Maybe you've wondered why the Malofiej Awards has, usually, a category for one-column infographics. Well, you can put the blame in this tiny infographic by Reuters from 1993.

Its author, Ciaran Hughes, working today at Daily Telegraph, was the one who told me this story. He worked then at Reuters, when Corrie Parsonson was the infographics editor. They sent this infographic to the Malofiej Awards, just one column wide. We were in a time when there were big double spreads about Olympics, when two little details were enough to build a big infographic about the first Gulf War. So, many judges liked the infographic, but they thought it was too little to deserv an award. By then, Peter Sullivan was the president of the Jury. He, on the contrary, thought that its small space was, not a handicap, but something that made the graphic better. It explained what it wanted to explain, was understandable, and didn't need half page.

Finally, the infographic got a bronze medal as best scientific infographic. The next year, Peter Sullivan proposed to create the one-column infographic category, to recognize those graphics that could explain many things in a very reduced space.